By Sam Bennison

Job losses

Northwood Curtailment takes a personal toll

Aug 23, 2024 | 3:59 PM

PRINCE GEORGE—The indefinite curtailment of one production line at Northwood Pulp has begun to see individuals lose their jobs. Paul Lacasse a tradesman at Northwood Pulp says that at the end of August 29 he will be without a job.

“It’s a very skilled, specific place to work, and they feed their families very well from working there,” says Paul Lacasse. “Me, as a tradesman, I will land on my feet. But there’s definitely a lot of people that are going to be struggling.”

Lacasse says his biggest concern is young workers. He is calling on the government to provide more retirement incentives to ensure younger, skilled laborers have more opportunities.

“Anybody over 55 to 65 can get a package that would be a lump sum to say ‘hey, like, if you retire, we’ll give you money so that somebody else can take your position,'” explains Lacasse. “Then, they would go on retirement and collect their pension and it allows somebody to stay at the mill in there and work.”

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Lacasse adds that his one co-worker is near retirement and if the opportunity was available for that co-worker he would still have a job.

In a statement, the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation said:

“Government delivers a suite of supports through our Community Transition services for people impacted by weakening markets and changes in the forest sector. These supports include skills training, short-term employment opportunities, employment assistance, and retirement transition support for eligible workers through the Bridging to Retirement program.”

MLA for Prince George-Valemount Shirley Bond suggests another alternative is to ensure our skilled laborers can find opportunities in other industries.

“We should be able to figure out how to take employees that have been displaced, support them, retrain them if necessary and give them the funding to do that, to be able to transition them into other fields of work,” says Bond.

CKPG News reached out to Canfor about bridging to retirement. However they did not provide a comment by the deadline.

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Email: sam.bennison@pattisonmedia.com